Watch a 3D Printer being built in the BIF Atrium

Update: 3/31 :Students had great fun at the event. Some photos from the event below, and some coverage on the Daily Illini as well.

Join the #DigitalMaking 2016 students as they build a 3D Printer from an ultimaker original kit right in front of you. The event is sponsored by Ultimaker, who donated the kit, and the MakerLab.  The event will be at the BIF Atrium from 3:00 pm to 8:00 pm, March 28th.

We will have 3D Printing and scanning demonstrations and some refreshments as well. You can even get a free print of your head/bust scan, if you get all the questions right on a 3D Printing Trivia Quiz. Find out all about the makerlab, sign up for some workshops, find out about our two courses, Digital Making and Making Things, and learn about our new 3D Printing online specialization .

We will have Matt Griffin, the North America community manager from ultimaker with us to MC the event.

MakerLab_3DP Expo

Illinois MakerLab supports Relay for Life

The Illinois MakerLab was present at Relay for Life, a cancer awareness fundraising event, on March 12th-13th. We set up a booth that consisted of two poster boards, two Ultimaker 2Go's, and some example prints. One poster advertised the MakerLab, and the other detailed how 3D printing is being utilized in medicine. We also prepared around 150 3D printed keychains. These keychains were themed to the event, and they were originally sold for $1. Towards the end, they were given away.

The traffic by the booth was fantastic. We were easily the most popular booth at the event, and there were over 1100 participants. Countless people inquired about 3D printing, and quite a few showed interest in the MakerLab. Since we were sponsors, our logo is on the back of the participant shirts!

Now check out how the Illinois MakerLab Supports Student Hackers.

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3D Printing Conference a Big Success

Earlier this month, the Illinois MakerLab successfully hosted its first 3D Printing Conference, with over forty faculty and students in attendance from across our campus. The conference began with Dean Brown delivering a set of opening remarks and was followed by interesting presentations by John Hornick [Finnegan & Associates], Jeff Smith [Autodesk], Ed Hmurovic [Ultimaker], and Mark Cotteleer [Deloitte]. These presentations were followed by an invigorating discussion panel headed by three Illinois faculty [Jeff Ginger, James Leake, and David Weightman]. This conference discussed several new advances in the 3D Printing domain, including the news that Hewlett-Packard plans to release a 3D Printer in the next two years, the development of liquid metal as a new 3D Printing material and that the University of Louisville has announced that they plan to print a human heart by 2023!

We hope to host a similar conference in the Fall 2016. Stay tuned for details!

Dean Conference

John Conference

Jeff Conference

Mark Conference

MakerLab Workshop Series Bought to you by Autodesk Fusion 360

The MakerLab workshop series has been a huge success and we have Autodesk Fusion 360 to thank for this. Thanks to their support we have managed to spread the Maker spirit across campus to students and faculty members and even the Champaign Urbana Community. Currently, the workshop series includes  3D Printing, Basic 3D Design(TinkerCad), Advanced 3D Design(Inventor), 3D Scanning and the MakerGirls series. With the support from Autodesk, we are developing another workshop in Advanced 3D Design using Fusion 360. Autodesk has also launched an initiative to enhance student skills in 3D Modeling, by incentivizing them to create Cool 3D Models. The response for these workshops has been phenomenal. All workshops were filled up within just a few hours! We will be offering more workshops very soon. So far we have had 210 sign ups for the 17 workshops organized for March and April.  In addition,  we have 48 sign ups for the MakerGirls workshop series!

Workshop series

Help the MakerLab in its mission to help students and spread knowledge. Stay tuned for updates by subscribing to our blog feed, or just get our posts via email. You can also like us on Facebook or follow us on twitter to stay updated. Have an interesting story about making at the lab? Just drop us a note at UIMakerLab@illinois.edu.

Become a Certified Maker

We are excited to launch a set of workshops on 3d printing, modeling and scanning. Take all four and become a certified maker, along with a Digital Badge that you can show on your profile on social media or LinkedIn!! 1. 3D printing 2. Basic 3D Design 3. Advanced 3D Design 4. 3D Scanning

These workshops have been designed to help you understand the fundamentals and get you hands-on practice in each session. The workshops start with the basics of 3D printing and go on to more advanced methods of 3D modeling and end with a workshop on 3D scanning. All courses must be completed in order to be certified by the MakerLab. We guarantee you an evening of fun and learning. Hurry! Each workshop is limited to 10 students!

Find out more and sign up for the Workshops now.

Stay tuned for updates on new workshops by subscribing to our blog feed, or just get our posts via email. You can also like us on Facebook or follow us on twitter to stay updated. You can contact us at UIMakerLab@illinois.edu

MakerLab Hosts MSBA Students

Last Friday, our Lab hosted 40 students from our College's Masters of Science in Business Administration (MSBA) program. These students received a tour of the Lab and had the opportunity to create their own customizable key chains. Although none of these students had any prior exposure to 3D printing technology, within less than 30 minutes, they were turning their ideas into objects! What ideas for objects do you have? Stop by our Lab and make your dreams reality!